Convenient pediatric telemedicine Strategies Under Scrutiny

 

Health Insurance And You: What You Should Know




Insurance can be a tricky topic, especially if you're new to the field. Finding out about the differences in policies, the differences in rates, and even the differences in carriers can seem like a huge task, regardless of how much experience you have with purchasing insurance. This article provides a great deal of useful information that can aid you in avoiding mistakes that can cost you a lot of money.

When considering a health care insurance plan from your employer, take a good look at your current plan and consider items that you might be able to change. You may be currently paying for more coverage than needed, or certain items that may now be obsolete. Take time to consider each option, what it means to you, and how much it is worth to have included in your plan.

Before buying health insurance, take time to calculate all of the potential costs involved. Deductibles, premiums and co-pays can be hard for someone to understand so make sure you you add up the costs of everything before you purchase the insurance.

When applying for health insurance, have a talk with your doctor. Have him pull your medical records so you can be sure that there are no inaccuracies, and that there is nothing that may be detrimental to your chances of getting insurance. Look back at least ten years, as some health insurance companies do.

Increase your deductible for lower premiums, but prepare to pay more out-of-pocket expenses. If you feel that you cannot afford your premiums, you can consider a deductible increase, but make sure you take all other expenses into account. You may not actually be saving money if you visit the doctor more frequently.

The high cost of health insurance has caused many people to reconsider having coverage. But responsible families realize they don't know when sickness/illness is going to occur, so to protect themselves in the event this happens, they choose to purchase health insurance.

Consider opening a savings account to use as an expense account that you can use to make payments on your co-pays and deductibles that apply to your health insurance. It can be used to pay for things that are not covered under many policies like prescriptions, eye glasses and contact lenses.

Consider the pros and cons of the different types of health insurance plans that are available. You will need to research Health Maintenance Organization (HMO), Preferred Provider Organization (PPO), Point of Service (POS), Health Savings Account (HSA) and traditional indemnity. Find as much information as possible about each kind before enrolling into the program.

Ask if your insurance company offers a "money back guarantee". Many companies are trying this route out in order to stay competitive. They will allow you to take a policy out and if you aren't satisfied in a set period of time (usually about thirty days), you get a full refund.

Make sure you ask your friends and family advice when you're searching for health insurance. You might find that different insurance companies offer different types of plans, so find one that caters more toward your needs. You can also ask and even call some providers you think you may want to select and ask more detailed questions regarding the coverage they provide.

When it comes to health insurance, you really need to research your own state. Insurance can differ state to state, so you want to make sure you understand what is available in your own area. Places like New York can be very pricey, while other states have a much lower cost.

If you and your spouse are both offered health insurance coverage through your employers, review both policies carefully before making a decision. You may save money by going with just your policy, or just your spouse's. It also might be less expensive to insure each of you separately.

Did you know that your income tax is affected by your health insurance premium and benefits. You can actually deduct some items, especially if they're not covered by your insurance, like the deductible prescriptions. You should check your state's income tax law, or contact an accountant, to find out what you can claim this year.

Keep an itemized list of all your medical expenses and health insurance payments. Even if you're not self-employed, you may be able to deduct at least some of them on your telehealth technology income tax. Co-payments, dentist visits and treatment, deductibles, premiums and uncovered health spending, can all be deductible, so be sure to check with an accountant.

Research a potential insurance company's reputation. Even if you have been quoted an attractive rate, it is important to thoroughly look into an insurance company before signing on with them. Find out if they are in good financial standing, and not in danger of bankruptcy. Check reviews as well, as some companies have become known for dropping customers when they are in the most need and costing the insurance company the most money.

Ask your accountant to check into health insurance premium deductions on your small business income tax. This year (2011) small business owners were able to deduct their premiums a second time on Schedule SE, and with the current economy the government will definitely be offering additional similar deductions to keep people going.

If you have to switch insurance companies and you have been with a doctor's practice for a while and want to stay with them, call the practice and get advice from them about the insurance options that are available to you. They will be able to give you their view on the options you have available.

See if your health insurance provider has lockable rates. Many health insurance companies offer rates you can lock into place so that your rate will remain the same, year in and out. This way you will know what to expect to pay for your insurance, and can keep your budget more under control.

While the decision to purchase a specific kind of health insurance often comes down to what one can afford, other considerations are important because the entire purchase of insurance is based on the possibility that an individual will need expensive medical care. This article has given you the information to make an informative decision. Take your time to digest and you will make right choice.

 

Telehealth and telemedicine for coronavirus: What it is and how to use it now

 

What is telemedicine?


According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, telemedicine is defined as “the practice of medicine using technology to deliver care at a distance. A physician in one location uses a telecommunications infrastructure to deliver care to a patient at a distant site.”


Testa says his hospital is using telemedicine both within and outside the hospital to manage the influx of patients needing care. “We're using video visits inside of our hospitals, and inside of our emergency departments, to minimize exposure to our staff, as well as exposure to other patients who are immunocompromised,” he says.


How to use telemedicine


A good place to start is to check with your health care provider, provider system or hospital’s app for a telemedicine portal, download it and follow the prompts.


“We've been doing video visits for over a year and a half — we've already done about 15,000 of them,” says Testa. “What we've learned in interviewing our patients is that more often than not, they had plans to either go to their primary care doctor and it is off-hours, or they had planned to go to a brick-and-mortar urgent care. Virtual urgent care is just more convenient than those options.”


At NYU Langone, for example, Testa says these video visits are fully integrated into patients’ online health profiles, and visible to their primary care doctors who can easily see what labs or X-rays have been ordered.


If you don’t have a primary care doctor and prefer to use urgent care when you need it, virtual urgent care apps, like PlushCare, Doctor on Demand or MDLive, can give you virtual access to a doctor, 24/7.


Ryan McQuaid, CEO and co-founder of PlushCare, says that under normal circumstances, patients who use his telemedicine platform tend to use it as a primary care provider.


He says these patients usually fall into three buckets: They use telemedicine to manage ongoing conditions, like depression, diabetes or hypertension; everyday care issues like hair loss or birth control; and urgent care issues, like cold and flu, sinus infections or UTIs. And their patients aren’t just tech-forward millennials — McQuaid says elderly patients have begun to embrace telemedicine.

 






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Los Angeles clinic puts underprivileged community at greater risk of contracting coronavirus, health care workers say

 

LOS ANGELES — The largest health care provider in South Los Angeles, which serves low-income African Americans and Latinos, is putting some of the city's most vulnerable residents at risk of contracting the coronavirus by having patients come in for routine appointments, according to some medical professionals who work there.


As the coronavirus batters minority communities, some medical professionals said they are concerned that the facility, St. John's Well Child and Family Center, is disregarding a key federal guideline intended to protect people from the contagion, which recommends that medical facilities reschedule nonessential appointments.


Seven medical professionals, including doctors and nurses, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of losing their jobs, said that they have taken their concerns to the chief administrator of St. John's several times but that the practice has not stopped. Shortly after the professionals spoke with NBC News, two said they were fired.


St. John's CEO Jim Mangia said he could not comment on personnel matters, but said the only reason a provider would be terminated would be for "a malpractice issue or severe behavioral issues."


Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak


As of mid-April, the professionals said, 50 percent to 80 percent of patients they see in a day have no pressing medical concerns and should have had their appointments rescheduled or converted to telephone or video appointments to avoid potentially exposing them or others to the virus, which has killed more than 68,000 people in the U.S.


 

 






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No-Nonsense diet plan for weight loss Systems - The Emerging Challenges

 

Weight Loss Advice Straight From The Health And Diet Experts




Losing weight is not a battle as much as it is a journey. These tips can help you learn how to lose weight effectively regardless of your personal circumstances. Follow the advice found here to make life-long changes in diet and exercise routines that result in a lighter, healthier you.

If you wish to lose weight you ought to keep a daily food journal. By keeping track of all foods and beverages consumed throughout the day, and under what circumstances they are selected, it becomes easier to remain accountable for your dietary patterns. Knowledge of what kinds of situations trigger your overeating can help you adjust your behavior and adopt healthier habits.

Shedding excess pounds and keeping your muscles in shape may lengthen your life. Your heart will have to work less to carry blood around your body, minimizing stress on your circulatory system. This measure along with regular exercise can reduce your risk of developing more serious problems later on in your life.

A tip that may help you lose weight is to reduce the amount of carbohydrates you eat in every meal. Carbohydrates are very important because they give us energy, but it can be really easy to eat too many, and excess carbohydrates are guaranteed to be stored as fat.

Lose more weight by drinking your snacks. When you are having a craving, try to have some soup or a natural fruit smoothie. These foods will help you feel less full at meals, and will give you the calories you need to be able to make it through those midday cravings.

Try not to eat all the food on your plate. Ignore the advice you grew up with. Do not clean your plate during every meal. Try to leave something on it. Pay attention to your body. It will tell you when you are full. Do not keep eating past that point.

Losing weight can be more fun if you do it with a partner. Try getting together with a group of friends and becoming workout buddies. Exercise together and talk about obstacles that arise. Working with a partner to lose weight can make you feel like you aren't alone, as well as making you accountable to someone else for keeping up.

Whenever you get that gnawing craving for a certain food, grab your phone and call a friend and chat for a bit. Redirecting your mind to something else will help keep you from giving in to that food that your mind is stuck on. Research has revealed that cravings generally last for about 5 minutes. By the time you have hung up from having that chat, your desire to gorge yourself with junk should have passed.

For most dieters, briskly walking can actually be better for you than running, especially if you are more than 50 pounds overweight. When you run as a heavy person, you're causing your joints damage and can damage your heart. By walking quickly, though, you're still burning calories while protecting your body.

When trying to lose weight and eat healthier, it is a good idea to keep desirable, healthy snacks within reach. One could fill a platter or bowl with the day's allowance of fruits and vegetables and graze throughout the day, guilt-free! You can also try keeping healthy snacks in plastic baggies, that make it easy to grab and go.

When dieting, skip weighing yourself every day. A person's weight can vary daily, or even hourly, by the amount of water in their body and many other factors. Weighing yourself daily will not give you an accurate picture, and it can negatively effect your self esteem. Weigh yourself no more than once a week instead.

Alternate your daily intake of calories to keep your metabolism confused. If you adjust your eating habits to eat the same number of calories every day, your metabolism may adjust to this and slow down in order to conserve energy. Instead, eat a varying number of calories. One day eat a higher number than the next when you eat a few. This will keep your metabolism burning at a higher rate.

When following any weight loss plan, make yourself some low-calorie snack bags such as a bag of sliced carrots, a bag of juicy grapes or a bag with 25 pretzel sticks. Not only will these snacks be handy and quickly accessed, these low-calorie snacks will give you a feeling of fullness and stave off hunger. They can also keep you from hitting the vending machines at work for those high-calorie, junk food selections.

Walking is a lot better for you than you may think if your goal is to lose those stubborn pounds of body fat. Not only does the exercise help you to burn calories, but the oxygen you take in from walking outside will also allow your body to become a literal fat-burning machine and melt that fat away efficiently.

It is important to eat at least some carbohydrates when you are dieting, even if you are on the Atkins diet. Without carbohydrates, your body will be unable to metabolize the nutrition coming in, which in turn, means that your body will be unable to provide you with energy. Instead, your body will just store any food you eat and hope to be able to use it later.

Drinking eight glasses of water a day may be an old adage, but it can provide serious benefits for weight loss. In addition to giving you a sensation of fullness, staying hydrated helps your body break down fats and move them out of your body efficiently. Now researchers in Germany report that increasing your water consumption can also increase the rate you burn calories. So drink up for successful weight loss!

Counting calories can drive you up the wall, so if it's making you more crazy than it is more skinny give it up. Instead, focus on eating more vegetables than any other food group and try to cut as much fat out as possible. Eat only limited dairy and meat and you should find yourself losing weight in no time.

You should visualize yourself at the size you want to be. Imagining how you will look, live and feel when you have lost the weight can be a great motivator. You can think about the new and exciting things that you will be able to do. You can also imagine the great clothes that you will be able to wear that you cannot wear now.

Beginning a new weight loss program can be difficult, read more so many people never dive into it. This is due to things like problems with time or problems with motivation. Whatever the situation, you should not allow it to stop you. Using the advice from this article, you can start a weight loss plan and finish it.

 

Diet Doc Announces Great hCG Diet Alternative

 

In an effort to bring the power of an hCG diet alternative to patients nationwide, Diet Doc Has created a revised hCG diet plan featuring low dose naltrexone, a great hCG replacement for weight loss.

 

ATLANTA, March 2, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- While the HCG diet has a proven record of providing successful weight loss, some find the drastically reduced calorie intake to be troublesome. However, because it provides such astounding weight loss, the hCG diet is still utilized for off label weight loss use. Doctors are able to prescribe hCG, or human gonadotropin, for off label uses such as weight loss. The powerful hormone stimulates the body's ability to burn fat, and this combined with a low calorie diet plan can produce drastic results for all body types.


In an effort to bring the power of an hCG diet alternative to patients nationwide, Diet Doc Has created a revised hCG diet plan featuring low dose naltrexone, a great hCG replacement for weight loss.


Low dose naltrexone helps users lose weight by reducing appetite, and helping to reduce the hormones in the body responsible for emotional eating and snacking.


Diet Doc's new medical weight loss plans use Low Dose Naltrexone to produce great results, similar to the hCG diet. Aside from easier weight loss, LDN has been found to provide the following benefits to users:


Increases natural endorphins, dopamine;


Improved effects on mood, well-being;


Decreases inflammation;


Increases sex drive;


Safe to use long term;


First improvement is in mood / sense of wellbeing;


Clinical strength LDN is extremely safe when used for weight loss, with nearly zero side-effects being reported. Dieters can use Diet Doc's LDN as a long-term appetite suppressant without fear of discontinuing use abruptly, as LDC's safety is very well established. In addition, Diet Doc's LDC can be used in conjunction with other Diet Doc clinical weight loss aids like Oxytocin, MetWell, Sermorelin, Lipotropics like vitamin B-12 injections, and nearly any other, allowing users to experience much easier weight loss than with dieting alone.


The Diet Doc Weight loss system is simple. Interested dieters simply schedule a free consultation with a licensed Diet Doc physician, conducted conveniently and privately from the patient's own home via Skype or telephone conference. During this consultation a licensed doctor will evaluate the patient, using complex questionnaires and medical insight to expose underlying causes for weight gain.


Each new patient receives a free initial clinical evaluation, as well as unlimited doctor consultations for as long as they remain on the Diet Doc medical weight loss system.


Similar to the hCG diet plan, after the patient's initial consultation, Diet Doc begins working with their licensed nutritionists to develop an individualized diet plan based on each individual's personal factors including age, weight, long term goals, and current health. Each diet plan is a little different because it is designed around the dieter's individual factors.


To complement the medical weight loss plan, Diet Doc patients have access to the company's complete line of prescription weight loss aids, helping boost results to nearly 20 pounds per month. All prescription diet aids are produced in an FDA approved compounding pharmacy located in the United States, and all prescription medication is delivered directly to each client's door, saving the patient time, money, and unnecessary effort.

 






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Where To Go For Astute telehealth solution Programs

 

Learn How To Hunt Down The Best Health Insurance Deals




Do not approach health insurance with fear. It is true the field is complex and your options are many, but the more you learn, the safer you will feel. Health insurance is similar to healthcare itself. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. By making smart choices when you select health insurance, you can avoid difficulties in the future.

When evaluating health insurance coverage, take the time to compare quotes on the type of plan you need. The costs associated with insurance will range widely between companies. Doing some homework on what is covered vs. cost of coverage can save a lot of money and time, should the need arise.

To lower the deductible costs of your health insurance, choose a plan whose network includes your primary care doctor as well as your preferred specialists. This will save you from paying a fee to continue to visit your primary care doctor and from paying fees to see your preferred specialists.

Even with health insurance, getting emergency care can be expensive. Use hospital emergency room facilities only for true emergencies. For routine but urgent health problems, you'll save money by going to a walk-in clinic. Some pharmacies also have mini-clinics where you can be seen, get evaluated and get a prescription. If needed, they can help you find more advanced medical help.

Even with health insurance, getting emergency care can be expensive. Use hospital emergency room facilities only for true emergencies. For routine but urgent health problems, you'll save money by going to a walk-in clinic. Some pharmacies also have mini-clinics where you can be seen, get evaluated and get a prescription. If needed, they can help you find more advanced medical help.

Regardless of the kind of policy you have, choosing generic medications will always save you money. In most cases, you can get generics, and generally there isn't a difference between these and the brand names anyway.

Prioritize your concerns. Do you want to stick with a certain doctor or health care facility? Do you want the lowest premiums? Do you have specific health requirements that need to be addressed? Once you make a list of your priorities, you will be able to narrow down the number of health insurance companies that are suitable for your needs.

Never let a health insurance agent pressure you into making a decision. If they try to tell you that what they are telling you is a one-time offer and it will disappear if you do not accept it, move along quickly. Health insurance scams are quickly becoming popular, especially since the economy has left many people with no coverage.

When getting ready to change health insurance policies, be aware of your costs when it comes to eye-care, too. This is just as important as other types of medical care. If you wear contacts or glasses, you need to know how much they cost you a year. Also, keep track of the click here prices you pay for lens cleaners and other related supplies.

Your employer may provide you with a list of health insurance providers to choose from. It is a good idea to ask your co-workers, but also doctors and nurses you know, which one they have had the best experience with. It's not just what is written in your policy, but how it is implemented that matters!

Take some time to familiarize yourself with the contents of your health insurance manual for future reference. Providers send you a book covering all of the fine nuances of your policy. The only way you can know what to expect is to spend the time reading the entire thing. While it may seem tedious, the information is very important and is worth knowing.

Whether you pay all or just a portion of your prescriptions, or you have a Health Spending Account to cover those purchases, you want to look for a deal when buying your pills. Check out pharmacies at either major discount retailers, or membership club stores, as their prices will often be very low.

You need to take money with you when you go to see a doctor because you may have to pay a co-pay. A lot of insurance companies require customers to pay a small co-pay when they visit the doctor. It is typically not more than $50, but it must be paid at the time of the visit and most doctors require it to be paid before they will even see the patient.

If you are unemployed and have medical issues, you should subscribe to COBRA. COBRA allows you to stay on your employer's plan, even after they fire you. You will have to pay for the coverage: this is the right decision if your employer offers a plan you are satisfied with.

You should always keep in mind that a single visit to a hospital or a doctor can involve many separate procedures and tests. Your insurance company is not obligated to pay for an entire visit. When you have preparation time, double-check with your insurer to find out if any parts of your visit fall outside your insurance coverage.

When deciding on health insurance, you should pick the company that suits your individual needs. If you suspect you need more freedom than an HMO gives you, consider PPOs. These health plans cover you if you visit doctors within their network but also provide some coverage for health care outside the network. You have to pay an extra fee to use a non-network doctor if you are covered by a PPO. With point-of-service (POP) plans, you must choose a PCP within a company's network, but you can see specialists that aren't within the network if you are referred to them by your PCP.

It is absolutely necessary to have health insurance these days, because of the expense of modern medical procedures. Finding one that is reliable can be quite difficult. Don't just go by cost. You should ask around and see which companies other people have had good experiences with because they are likely to know if their claims have been denied before.

Ask your local physician about your medical records before applying for health insurance. Many private health insurance providers will review your 10 year medical history before allowing you to purchase a policy, so make sure that your medical records are up-to-date and discuss any health issues that insurance companies might red flag with your physician.

Look out for health insurance polices that also offer eye and dental care converge. Some health plans now include this extra converge and these plans could save you a lot of money. Paying separately for dental procedures, lens, glasses, annual eye and dental checkups, etc. can really add up.

As was stated above, it is important to really consider what you need in a health insurance plan. The best way to do that is to learn all you can about health insurance. Take the advice provided to you in the above article, and use it to get the best health insurance possible.

 

How Harvard's telehealth program can be a guide toward success

 

Before the COVID-19 pandemic began to ripple across the world, Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center had only used telehealth in a limited capacity.


But when the crisis made itself evident, explained HMFP Director of Telehealth​​ Dr. Oren Mechanic in an interview with Healthcare IT News, "we knew we needed to develop an enterprise-wide virtual delivery system to withstand the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond."


"And it needed to happen quickly – in a matter of days," he added.


Mechanic, who will present at HIMSS22 in Orlando about the program alongside HMFP Chief Information Officer Leanne Harvey, noted that physicians were quick to innovate in response to the uptick in interest.


"There were robots, remote devices, tele-rounding and hackathons" to treat patients virtually, he said. "As we were innovating fast, our CEO, Dr. Alexa Kimball, Chief of Emergency Medicine Dr. Rich Wolfe, and I published our vision for a virtual hospital that would care for patients outside of the conventional four walls.


"This served as our model as we focused our system on equity, access, and patient and family engagement to design a virtual care system that now supports our clinician workforce, consisting of over 2,000 providers," he continued.


"We hope it sustains virtual care for many years to come!" he said.


Of course, such an enormous undertaking doesn't come without challenges.


Throughout the system's journey to conducting upwards of 500,000 virtual visits, said Harvey, "we have had to consider privacy and security, multiple channels to engage patients – text, email, telephone, chat, video – language support, physician burnout, staff training and access to care for underserved populations.

 






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Rapid Methods For telemedicine services - Promising Ideas

 

Things You Should Know About Health Insurance




Giving consideration to the kind of health insurance you want is very important. You want to have the best coverage for your needs. By learning more information about health insurance, you will be more informed about which is the best plan for you. The following article is going to give you that information.

When looking for a personal care physician, make sure to check with your insurance company for a doctor in your insurance network. Your insurance co-pays will be higher with an out-of-network provider, or you may find your visits won't be covered at all. Your insurance company should provide an online directory of physicians from which you can choose.

If you find yourself without medical insurance, you can still get medical care, but you will be paying for all of it yourself. To keep costs in line, use walk-in clinics, county health services and talk to your personal physician. Many will charge a bit less or work with you to set up a payment plan.

Get to know the three major types of health insurance policies: the HMO, the POS, and the PPO. Research these three types to find out how their coverage, policy rates and programs differ. Use this information to figure out which one would be best for you and your family.

It is important that you take price into consideration when looking for medical insurance. Although having health insurance is very important, you do not want to end up losing it because you cannot afford the premiums. If a potential insurance company's premiums seem too high, shop around for another one. You can even try to negotiate a lower price with your preferred company.

If you are employed at any job in the country, take full advantage of your employer's insurance policy. Because of the recently passed healthcare legislation, every employer now has to offer insurance to employees. It might be a bit costly, but it's far more affordable to go through your employer for coverage.

Unless you are actually suffering an emergency, you should always avoid the emergency room unless you want huge charges on your health insurance bill. A doctor's visit is far more affordable. If you plan it in advance and do not waste the hospital's resources and time, you will not have to pay a lot of money for your visit via deductibles.

If you are fortunate enough to have an FSA or HSA (flexible spending account or healthcare spending account) as supplemental health insurance, be sure you are getting the maximum out of it. It can be challenging to figure out how much money you are going to spend in the next calendar year on noncovered expenses, but it's worth the effort since that money is all pretax.

Know which hospitals are accepted in your health care plan and let your loved ones know where to take you, in case of an emergency. Planning ahead for these events can help to save you and your family money. You can even carry a wallet card that tells emergency workers what hospital to take you to.

When looking around for health insurance try finding a site that lets you compare all of the companies in your area side-by-side. You can then see how each company ranks against the others in each aspect and choose the one that best fits what it is that you need.

When shopping for health insurance, consider how important it is to you to keep your current doctors. Most plans are very specific about which doctors you can use, and the lowest cost options may not include your favorite physicians. It's important to prioritize keeping your current doctor, versus cost of the policy, when making your decision.

When thinking about getting health insurance coverage, not many people think of test driving their prospective plan. This is called a free trial basis - you get your money back if you aren't happy - as long as it is canceled within a set amount of time. Check to see if this is offered in your area!

You need to make sure that you have fully researched as many health insurance plans as you possible can. An insurance broker may be needed if you don't have the time or the desire to go through the large amounts of information. You can also look at websites that specialize in comparing and picking insurance policies that fit the customer's needs.

If you are unemployed and have medical issues, you should subscribe to COBRA. COBRA allows you to stay on your employer's plan, even after they fire you. You will have to pay for the coverage: this is the right decision if your employer offers a plan you are satisfied with.

You should avoid policies that look like health insurance but are only after your money. For instance, you can find policies that will cover you only for cancer or a particular disease. In most cases, the definition of the disease is so limited that the odds of you getting the exact disease are very slim.

When talking to your health insurer after applying for coverage, make sure that what you're telling the person on the phone is 100% accurate. DO NOT leave anything out, or fudge a number, or exaggerate. Just like your application, total honesty is required in a follow-up call and if they find anything that you said was untrue, you WILL lose your coverage.

Did you know that you are sometimes able to test out your health insurance plan before fully signing? Insurance companies refer to this action as a "free look". They usually provide you with a trial period in which you are able to get your money back if here you are not satisfied with your plan.

Before purchasing a health insurance plan it is essential to get a copy of what the plan will and will not provide, and review it thoroughly. Do this before committing to make sure that you're really getting exactly what you think you are, and make sure that the plan isn't missing something that is provided by another company for a comparable price.

Look out for health insurance polices that also offer eye and dental care converge. Some health plans now include this extra converge and these plans could save you a lot of money. Paying separately for dental procedures, lens, glasses, annual eye and dental checkups, etc. can really add up.

As mentioned above, health insurance doesn't only protect your health, it protects your wallet, too. Health insurance gives you the freedom to take care of yourself when you need to. With the advice from this article, you should be more informed about health insurance and ready to make decisions regarding your status.

 

People with disabilities left behind by telemedicine and other pandemic medical innovations

 

Divya Goel, a 35-year-old deaf-blind woman in Orlando, Florida, has had two telemedicine doctors' appointments during the pandemic. Each time, she was denied an interpreter.


Her doctors told her she would have to get insurance to pay for an interpreter, which is incorrect: Under federal law, it is the physician's responsibility to provide one.


Goel's mother stepped in to interpret instead. But her signing is limited, so Goel, who has only some vision, is not sure her mother fully conveyed what the doctors said. Goel worries about the medical ramifications — a wrong medicine or treatment — if something got lost in translation.


"It's really, really hard to get real information, and so I feel very stuck in my situation," she signed through an interpreter.


Pandemic-fueled shortages of home health aides strand patients without care


Pandemic-fueled shortages of home health aides strand patients without care


Telemedicine, teleworking, rapid tests, virtual school, and vaccine drive-throughs have become part of Americans' routines as they enter Year 3 of life amid Covid-19. But as innovators have raced to make living in a pandemic world safer, some people with disabilities have been left behind.


Those with a physical disability may find the at-home Covid tests that allow reentry into society hard to perform. Those with limited vision may not be able to read the small print on the instructions, while blind people cannot see the results. The American Council of the Blind is engaged in litigation against the two dominant medical testing companies, Labcorp and Quest Diagnostics, over touch-screen check-in kiosks at their testing locations.


Sometimes the obstacles are basic logistics. "If you're blind or low-vision and you live alone, you don't have a car," said Sheila Young, president of the Florida Council of the Blind, pointing to the long lines of cars at drive-through testing and vaccination sites. "Who can afford an Uber or Lyft to sit in line for three hours?"


One in 4 adults in the US have some sort of disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Though barriers for the disabled have long existed, the pandemic brings life-or-death stakes to such long-running inequities.

 






https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1QgeK7rJ6U0f66uVa86DUMnAFLjW3g40jFmTFcYD563w/edit?usp=sharing


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